Puzzle.



AARON LIUELVEEN, OF STILSON', GEORGIA.

PUZZLE.

Application led November 20, 191?.

To alt whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, AAnon MCELVEEN, n citizen of the United States,residing at Stilson, in the county of Bulloch and Stute of Georgia.,have invented certain new and useful Improvement@ in Puzzles, of whichthe following is n. specification.

My invention relates to puzzles.

My object is to provide n puni/.lc put to gether in auch n wey that itat once appears an utter impossibility to have meemhlw the parte in theway in wl el they,Y nppmiry or to disansenihle them sift. 1 @hey :ireillus assembled.

A further olijert is fo heighten the effect of the delusion hy me {in-gthe diil'rrfmr parts of the devine out of pieces of Umterial strikinglj.7 different from euch other in appear ance, so as to instantlypreclude the idee (liable to present itself as a problem) that thepuzzle may have been eut out in a skilful manner from :i single piece ofmaterial., end that its parts have therefore 'never really beenseparated from euch other.

Another object is to provide e puzzle formed of few and simple parteeasily and cheaply made, und which when assembled seem to have been puttogether so easily that the device while defying' solution tnntelineeone by its manifest simplicity.

An importent feature ol the invention Consists in :t major member havingan o .ieuing therein in which opening is receive or is to be reoeived, aplurality of minor pieces having eut-away portions between their ends.with the opening in the major member only large enough to simulteneouslhold all the minor pieces at their interme .inte cutaway portions.Hence, the puzzle presents epparently the impossib e teslr of passingthrough en. opening of a. given size, a piece of material considerablylarger than the opening.,

The novelty of the invention consists in the construction andarrangement of the several parts considered in eonneetion with thenature of the material from which the parts are formed, es will behereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to theaecompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a. perspective View of oneform of my puzzle.

Fig. 2 is s, vertice] longitudinal section of Fig.

Specincation of Letters Patent.

y 'innnedietelj.Y irsunu; their solution of the Patented June S, 1918.Serial No. 203,0()(1.

sligh fly pur-zle res n in the lam, (il not merel; oi ii minor in formed:it einst Er me Wood lt in no? not gener:if en n Y iff vfefailwinfl inune -w ,i-.tirellv evff'ry kind of wood @n n i :a or other suitableeppure pressed, in eine m' hulk. i L and that when compres :d they willnot eine and shape, but will have :i tendciny to retain theirconiprersod form; hut the?, when placed in Water they will reridilj.'expend to their originel size and shape.

W' ith this expleinition it easily eeen how the puzzle is SnlvedReferring further te thiilmwings. the in:- inerul l. indie-ritrae 'themejor member of my puzzle which muy In nmfln in en; Shnpemreetangular.z-qunre. round. heurt shaped, otter-end te prwrdrd pr' lily at itsCellher with un ogn-ning e minor members 3 and i of the devine nrccutaway between their ends to form the notches 5. The upper and lowerends 3* and 4a respee` tively of these minor members are prefer` ably of:i shape and s ize to looselyv fit the opening 2 of the mejor member1 sothat any one of said ends approximately fills said opening it pessesthrough it.

Euch oi' the minor members 3 end 4 is reduced about one half in crosssectional aren et its notched portion, so that when the ends 3a and 4have been passed through the opening 2 of the mejor member.y the reduced portions` 3b and l of the tngo notched members will he easilyreceived and held in said opening 2, as illustrated in Figs. il

and 2.

square in cross section (at their ends) and are cut away about one halfat their notched portions between their ends, just as are the blocks 3and 4 in the other figures; so that when arranged as in F ig. 4 theirreduced portions loosely fill the opening 2". This opening is aboutthree times as long as it is wide in order for the blocks toapproximately fill it with their reduced portions when formed andarranged as shown and described.

If it is desired to form one of these puzzles with only three notchedblocks, either the block 6 or 8 may be omitted (referring to Fig. 4)together with the portion of the opening 2B into which the reducedportion of the omltted block is now received.

It is not deemed necessary to point out other manifest changes whichmight be?. made in the size, shape, and number of the blocks, shape ofthe opening into which they would be received, etc.

In passing the notched blocks 3 and 4 through the opening 2 in order toassemble or' disassemble the parts' of the puzzle, it is simply necessato compress one or more (asmay be pre erred) of the rojecting ends 3 and4 oflthe blocks, su ciently to permit the same to pass through theopening 2. This can usually best be done by means of a vise. If aprojecting end of each of the blocks be compressed, it is manifest thateach will only have to be compressed half as much as if only one blockis compressed, and in that case both blocks can be passed through theopening 2 at once. On the other hand, if only one block is compressed1the other block is placed in position inthe opening first, and then thecoinpressed block is entered in position. After the blocks 2 and 3 havebeen entered in proper position in the opening 2,the compressed portion,or portions as the case may be, is placed in water till it assumes itsoriginal size and shape.

Inasmuch as well known means has been devised for cutting a single pieceof wood into two or more pieces interlocked or otherwise related to eachother in a way that appears impossible to have been eii'ectedas, forinstance, a wooden bottle with a ball inside it larger than the neck ofthe bottle-Some persons will at first sight con- Y clude that thispuzzle belongs to that class of devices; and it is best that their mindsshould be forestalled in the outset against any sucherroneous opinion,in order that `the pizzle may make its strongest possible appea to themas something apparently imossible that has yet actually been done. romVthe foregoing description it will be seen that if but one of thenotched'blocks of my device be femm@ of soft resilient wood, such forinstallxtl as white pine, the other parts may be fo ed ofnen-resilientmaterial such as metal, and each piece of a different kindof metal if so desired. However it is thought that the real secret ofthe puzzle will remain more completel hidden if the notched blocks, atleast are a I formed of wood, since if only one sott wooden block wereused with a number of metal blocks some active minds would quicklyconclude, since metal had been largely employed in the construction ofthe device and was manifestly the most desirable material to be used ifpossible, that that one block of soft wood had been used from necessityand not from choice; and hence they would at once suspect that thesolution of the puzzle lay in that piece of wood. i

In view of the fore oing, it is thought that the best possible eect canbe produced and the secret of the puzzle kept most fully hidden byforming all 'the notched blocks of wood, and having each block formed ofa different kind of wood from the blocks ad- Lacent to it, and eachdifferent kind of wood eing of a strikingly different color to give asgreat a contrast as possible in colors. No artificially colored blocksshould be used since the use of artificial colors would tend to defeatthe very object sought in providing blocks having contrastin colors.

Of course, at least one b ock should a1- ways preferably be of some softwood such as white pine or bayr wood since soft woods are much moreeaslly compressed, and are less liable to become split or otherwisedamaged in being compressed.

In Fig. 4 I have indicated the blocks 6 and 8 (which are separated fromeach other) as formed of white wood such as white pine; the block 7 ofred Wood; and the block 9 of black wood, as ebony. In Figs. 1 and 2 Ihave indicated the block 3 formed of red wood, and the block 4 of whitewoodwwhitc pine.

Nice mechanical workmanship ma be disi played by making the major mem r1 of my device out of metal, but in that case care should be exercisedto select a metal that will not easily rust when the device is placed inthe water to rexpand the compressed blocks.

Having thus disclosed my invention, what I claim as new and desire toprotect by Letters Patent is 1. A device of the character described,comprising a major member having an opening; anda plurality of minormembers designed to be received thereinto, said minor members havingreduced sections between their ends and being formed of materials 2. Adevice 0f the character described, coniprising a major member having enopening; and a plurality of miner members adapted to be receivedthereinto, Said minor members having reduced sections between their endsand being formed of materials whose natural colors contrast with eachother, one at least of said members being formed of resilientl material,the opening of the major member 10 being of a size to sinnlltaneouslyreceive the reduced portions only of the minor members.

3. A device of the character described, comprising a major member havinga central Opening extending transversely therethrough and a plurality ofelongated miner members having reduced sections midway between theirends and designed to be received at their reduced portions into saidtransverse opening of the major member, said minor members being formed0f resilient woods and made similar to each other in Shape and size butcontrasting with each other in their natiira colors, the opening' in themajor member being of a size to simultaneously receive the reducedportions only of the minor members.

In testimony whereof I affix m signature.

AARON' MUALVEEN. Witnesses:

RUB. WRIGHT, CLIFF Peoc'ron.

